Incubator



J. L. ROBBINS May 2, 1933.

INCUBATOR Filed May 13, 1930 Patented May 2, 1933 I I UNITED STATESPATENT QFFICE JOHN L. ROBBINS, or D NVER; COLORADO i I .nvouna'roaApplication filed May is, i930. Serial no. 451,930. 7 7 This inventionrelates to improvements evaporator comprising a piece of water ab;- Iincubators of the type described and claimed sorbent fabric which ispreferably supported in United States Letters Patent No. 1,728,- invertical position between the rear wall 980,. granted to me on September24, 1929. of the incubator and one of the fans. Means .5 In incubatorsof the type now in general is provided for maintaining this fabric'moistuse where a large number of eggs are incuat all times so that when. thefan is operatbated at one time, it is customary to provide ing therewill be considerable evaporation the incubators withelectric heaters formaintaking place, which will tend to lower the taining the temperatureat'predetermined temperature within the incubator, as it is 10 value, aswell as with fans for circulating well known that any liquid evaporatingat the air and with means for supplying moisa high rate absorbs heat andtherefore reture to the air. The electric heaters are duces thetemperature; In addition to its controlled by means of thermostats whichfunction of lowering the temperature, this automatically cut off thecurrent when the evaporator also serves to impart to the air ,15temperature reaches a, predetermined value the necessary moisture. f

.- 35 the desired value.

and which will again close the circuit to Having thus briefly describedthe inventhe electric heater when the temperature tion, the same willnow be described in defalls below this value. tail and for this purposereference will be It has been found that in large incubators had to theaccompanying drawing in which 20 of the type referred to, the heatgenerated the preferred embodiment of the invention.

by the eggs themselves during the incubation has been illustrated and inwhich: period often times raises the temperature to Fig. 1 is atransverse section of an incubaa point higher than that which isnecessary tor of the type to which this invention refor incubation. Thisoccurs, of course, only fers, the section being taken online 1-1,. 25during hot weather or where the incubators Fig. 2; r are maintained in aroom where the tem- Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section taken on peratureis quite high. In order to prevent line 22, Fig. 1; and V the eggs frombecoming spoiled, due to ex- Fig. 3 is a view looking in the directionof cessive temperature, :I have found that it is arrow 3, Fig. 2.

30 necessary to provide some means for nor- In the drawing a portiononly of the inmally maintaining the temperature at a cubator has beenshown, as it is not my value lower than that necessary for incuba- Vintention to describe .the incubator which has tion so thatthe heatersmust be periodically beenfullydescribed and claimed'in the patemployedto maintain the temperature at ent above identified. The incubator isprovided with a bottom 1, a front side 2, which.. It is the object ofthis inventionto propreferably is formed by'ajplurality of doors, duce acooling means that can be applied a backwall 3 and a top 4. 1 Locatedwithin to incubators of the type described. and the incubator is an eggtray support 5 that claimed in the patent above referred to and has beenindicated by dot and dash lines 4 any other incubators of this generalclass and whichis adapted to support a plurality 35 and which will tendto lower the temperaof egg trays 6. This support is carried by ture andto maintain it normally below the an axle 7 and can be tilted about thisaxle temperature needed for incubation. for the purpose of turning theeggs. A fan This invention, briefly described, consists of the propellertype and which has been 45 in securing to the inside of. the incubatoran indicated as a whole by reference numeral the latter at the center,due to the fact that the propelling action of the fan blades is greaternear their peripheries than at their center point, and due to thefurther. fact that the fan is located quite near the rear wall andtherefore does not permit air to come to the back of the fan to anyappreciable extent. Secured to the inside of the rear wall 3, is anevaporator which consists of a piece of fibrous material, such as cloth,and which has been designated by reference numeral 14:. The upper end ofthis cloth is wrapped around a wire or rod 15 and has secured toopposite sides thereof, sheet metal strips 16. The upper edges of thesestrips are flared outwardly as indicated at 17 so as to form a trough inthe manner shown in Fig. 3. The upper end of the absorbent material isfastened to the rear wall by means of screws or bolts and these passthrough spacers 18 that space the parts from the wall surface. Securedto the lower end of the fibrous material is a trough 19 that extendsupwardly on the back side of the cloth and has its upper edge flaredrearwardly as indicated by numeral 20. This trough isv held in place bymeans of screws or rivets 21 and is secured to the rear wall by means ofbolts or screws passing through the spacers 18. Trough 19 is inclined inthe manner shown in Fig. 2 and located underneath the lower end of thistrough is a short trough 22 that projects over and terminates above thewater pan 23. Water may be supplied to the space between the upwardlyextending flanges 17 by any suitable means and where city water underpressure is available, a. pipe is connected with the water system andprovided with a valve that can be slightly opened so as to let waterdrop into the space between the plate 16 in sufficient quantity tomaintain the fibrous material 14' moist. In the embodiment shown, meanshas been provided for supplying "water-in the absence of available waterunder pressure and for this purpose a water tank 24 has been shown. Thistank is secured to the outside of the rear wall of the incubator andheld thereto by means of straps 25. A small valve 26 is secured to thebottomof the tank and located directly beneath this valve is a pipe 27whose upper end is provided with a funnel-like extension 28. This pipeextends inwardly through the wall of the incubator and terminates in adownwardly extending portion 29, which terminates directly above theupper edge of absorbent fibrous material in the manner shown in Fig. 3.Valve 26 is opened slightly so as to permit water to drip into thefunnel and this water will then pass through pipe 27 and be deposited inthe space be tween flanges 17 and if more water is supplied than can beevaporated the surplus will flow through the trough 19 into the pan 23.The water pan 23 may be provided with an overflow pipe 30 and thereforeif water is supplied in excessive amounts, there will be no danger ofoverflowing into the incubator.

lVhen the incubator is operating and the fan is in motion, there will bea constant movement of air through and past the fabric 14, which ismaintained moist at all times and this air will cause the Water to beevaporated at a high rate, thereby absorbing a large amount of heatwhich, in

turn, serves to reduce the temperature of theair in the incubator. Ifthe temperature falls below that required for incubation the thermostatsto which reference has been made, closes the electric circuits to theheaters and in this manner the temperature is always maintained at theright value, re-

gardless of the temperature of the building in which the incubator islocated.

Although the invention has been described in connection with theincubator that forms the subject matter of the patent above identified,it can be applied to incubators of any other specific construction and Itherefore do not limit myself to the exact construction shown as it isbelieved that,

this means is broadly new in incubators'of this type.

From the above description it will be :seen that by the simple meansdescribed above, it is possible tomaintain the ternperature of anincubator at the proper value, regardless of the fact that the incubatormay be located in an atmosphere of a higher temperature than thatrequired for incubation and regardless of the fact that a greater amountof heat is given off by the eggs than is necessary to maintain the airat the required temperature.

Having described the invention what is claimed as new is:

A moistener foruse with incubators hav ing a closed incubatingcompartment, a fan of the propeller type located within the compartmentand mounted for rotation in a vertical plane spaced a short distance vIn testimony whereof I affix my signature. JOHN L. ROBBINS.

